Freycinet Day Tour from Hobart: Is It Worth It?

I booked a day tour to Freycinet National Park from Hobart at the last minute when my plans to explore the Tasman Peninsula and see fur seals underwater the following day suddenly fell through. Wineglass Bay had been on my Tasmania wish list, so Freycinet seemed like a pretty good Plan B. What I didn’t expect was just how much there was to see and do beyond that one view.

Over the course of the day, we did three of Freycinet’s Great Short Walks, walked along the white sand of Friendly Beaches, stopped at Coles Bay and gorgeous Honeymoon Bay, and climbed to the Wineglass Bay Lookout. It was a full day, but surprisingly, it never felt rushed. The pace was just right, with a few opportunities to relax and meander.

It is a long day from Hobart, particularly with the steep climb to Wineglass Bay Lookout thrown in, and by the end I was very glad I didn’t have to drive the 2.5 hours back myself. Instead, I could relax in the van, go through the day’s photos and watch the sun set on the way back to Hobart.

How to Get to Freycinet from Hobart

Freycinet National Park is just over 168 kilometres from Hobart, about a 2.5-hour drive via the A3. Our day started early in Hobart, with our first stop in the historic town of Richmond.

We arrived just after sunrise and stopped to see the famous Richmond Bridge. Built in 1825, it is the oldest bridge in Australia still in use. It was a beautiful time to see it, with the early morning light and hardly anyone around.

Friendly Beaches Great Short Walk

5 minutes to 5 hours, 100m to 5km, Grade 2

The gateway to Freycinet National Park is the laid-back seaside village of Coles Bay. But our Freycinet adventure started at Friendly Beaches before we reached Coles Bay.

We visited in the morning, and before heading to the beach, we took a walk around the campsite where we spotted Bennett’s wallabies basking in the sun.

From the car park, a 10-metre boardwalk took us to a viewpoint, and another 10 metres of stairs took us down to the sand. And once we hit that incredibly soft white sand, we wanted to continue exploring.

The beach stretches south towards Friendly Point and Freshwater Lagoon. There is nothing between the access point and the lagoon but 7.8 km of sandy beach with some rocky outcrops and tidal pools along the way.

These beaches are home to nesting shorebirds like hooded plovers, red-capped plovers, pied oystercatchers, fairy terns, and little terns. If you visit in the summer months between October and March, make sure to walk close to the waterline to avoid disturbing the birds.

The walk doesn’t have a designated finish. You can walk all the way to Freshwater Lagoon or turn around at any point you like. On our day tour, we only had time for a short walk along the beach before continuing towards Coles Bay.

Coles Bay

From Friendly Beaches, we continued to Coles Bay. Just before we reached town, we got our first glimpse of Freycinet’s famous pink granite mountains reflected in the still water of the bay.

If you notice some pink discolouration in the water that, at first glance, looks like pollution, don’t worry; it is anything but. This is what bioluminescent plankton looks like in daylight hours. We spotted a pink patch in the bay during our visit. It is a rare enough occurrence, and if you spot the plankton during the day, you’ll know where to come looking for it at night if you happen to be staying overnight in the area.

Wineglass Bay Lookout Great Short Walk

1-1.5 hours return, 2.6 km return, Grade 3

Chances are, you came to Freycinet to see one of Tasmania’s most celebrated views—the curvaceous white beach and crystal-clear waters of Wineglass Bay and the isthmus that separates Wineglass Bay from Hazards Bay. While the isthmus is only partially visible from Wineglass Bay Lookout (you’ll need to hike to the top of Mt Amos to get a full view), the view of the bay itself and the rugged granite peaks is absolutely spectacular.

To see this postcard view, we had to climb 214 metres to the lookout perched in the saddle between Mt Amos and Mt Mayson. The trail is quite steep in places, but it is well constructed, with sections of stone steps in the steeper terrain. It takes most people 30–45 minutes to reach the top.

The Wineglass Bay Walk starts at Wineglass Bay car park, 4.4 km from Coles Bay along Freycinet Drive. The trailhead is also shared with the longer Hazards Beach and Mt Amos walks.

Before we left the car park area, we spotted a Bennett’s wallaby basking in the sun among the bushes.

As we started climbing the trail towards Wineglass Bay Lookout, we first arrived at Coles Bay Lookout about 20 minutes into the walk. This was a good opportunity to catch our breath and enjoy some of the views of the Tasmanian east coast.

From Coles Bay Lookout, we continued our ascent, passing underneath the rugged granite peaks and past an interesting rock that looks remarkably like a cartoon whale.

Once we reached the saddle between Mt Amos and Mt Mayson, we were only a few minutes away from our destination. There is a lovely wooden bench here if you need a break. Otherwise, continue for just a few hundred metres, and you will reach the sprawling Wineglass Bay Lookout, backed by a huge granite outcrop, with the amazingly clear waters of the bay glistening in the sun below.

While the view of Wineglass Bay is downright idyllic, the history of its name has a sinister side to it. In the days when the whaling industry was booming in Tasmania, the whalers would come to this bay to slice whale carcasses open to extract the valuable oil. The whales’ blood would fill the bay giving it the appearance of a glass of red wine. 

Thankfully, these days are well behind us, and today, you can spot passing humpbacks during their epic migration between Antarctica and the warm tropical waters off the Queensland coast.

Honeymoon Bay

As stunning as Wineglass Bay is, it is not the only beautiful bay in Freycinet. Just two kilometres away from Wineglass Bay car park, Honeymoon Bay is an absolute gem. Tiny in comparison to most other bays in the park, Honeymoon Bay is surrounded by jagged mountains, their pink granite bulk casting a warm hue over the landscape.

After the Wineglass Bay Lookout Walk, the two-minute stroll from the car park to Honeymoon Bay was a welcome change of pace.

We spotted a Pacific gull by the water and spent some time enjoying the bay before continuing our tour.

Honeymoon Bay is also a lovely picnic spot and one of the places where bioluminescent plankton can sometimes be seen at night—another reason you might want to stay overnight in Freycinet.

Cape Tourville Great Short Walk

20 min circuit, 600 meters, Grade 1

Cape Tourville Walk is one of the easiest walks in Freycinet National Park. It is basically a walk in the park, only with spectacular views of the granite coastline of Freycinet.

But while this walk might be short, it packs enough stunning coastal scenery to be a must-do in Freycinet. Most of the walk is on a raised boardwalk, which makes it even easier to walk, and plentiful signage along the way means that you’ll always know what you are looking at.

As we followed the boardwalk along the rocky coastline counterclockwise, we first came to a fabulous view of the weathered granite cliffs of Carp Bay jutting out in front of Wineglass Bay, with Mt Freycinet and Mt Graham rising on the other side.

In the second half of the walk, we came across the Nuggets, a group of four granite islets just offshore.

As we stared out to the horizon here, what we couldn’t see below the surface was the continental shelf dropping away towards the deep ocean. These waters are home to common and bottlenose dolphins, Australian and New Zealand fur seals, humpback whales during their migration, albatrosses and other seabirds such as Australian gannets.

Near the end, the trail looped around the unmanned, automatic Cape Tourville Lighthouse, built in 1971, before returning us to the car park.

Is a Freycinet Day Tour from Hobart Worth It?

I’ve done most of the popular day trips from Hobart, and Freycinet wasn’t my absolute favourite. But Wineglass Bay is one of those places that is so famous that if you come to Tasmania and don’t see it, you might always wonder whether you should have. And the view really is stunning.

There is inevitably a little bit of a bucket-list feeling to climbing up to the lookout, taking in that famous view and taking your photos. What made the tour much more enjoyable for me was how much else was packed into the day. Friendly Beaches, Coles Bay, Honeymoon Bay and Cape Tourville – it’s been great to see so many other less-promoted sides of Freycinet, so the day felt like much more than a trip to tick Wineglass Bay off the list.

Despite fitting a surprising amount into the itinerary, we never felt rushed. We had time to walk, take photographs, look for wildlife and simply enjoy the scenery. And after a full day of exploring and the steep climb to Wineglass Bay Lookout, I was very glad I didn’t have to drive the 2.5 hours back to Hobart.

So, yes, I think the Freycinet day tour is worth doing, particularly if Wineglass Bay is somewhere you’ve always wanted to see. The tour is organised well enough that you get the famous view, but you also get a genuinely enjoyable day exploring Freycinet around it.

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